Cultural Dessert

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

John Cooper Clarke and Hugh Cornwell

30 November 2016

Harpo Marx’s autobiography was famously titled ‘Harpo Speaks!’ – a witty play on the one thing you thought you knew about Harpo. (It’s a great book by the way, which taught me much about both croquet and chess.) Saturday’s gig at The Junction in Cambridge might similarly have been billed as ‘John Cooper Clarke Sings!’. The punk poet of Salford (who we saw last year supporting Squeeze – reviewed here in October 2015) has recorded an album of classic rock ‘n’ roll songs (‘This Time It’s Personal’) with Hugh Cornwell (former lead singer of The Stranglers) which they are now touring. I had expected it to be more of a double act but Cornwell, and his excellent band, were clearly backing John Cooper Clarke who was very much the main attraction. His surprisingly strong baritone voice worked well with the punkish interpretation of well-chosen classics including ‘Johnny Remember Me’, ‘Wait Down Yonder in New Orleans’ and ‘It’s Only Make Believe’. And, although, the welcome discovery that John Cooper Clarke really can sing gradually gave way to the realisation that he can’t sing that well, his engaging personality made for a fun evening. He has a very dry sense of humour and a great way with words, dedicating ‘Spanish Harlem’ to that late great ‘Spanianista’, Fidel Castro, and suggesting his version of the Ritchie Valens song ‘Donna’ was being offered as reparations to the Mexican people for the damage done by Marty Wilde’s interpretation. And his rendition of ‘MacArthur Park’ (made famous by that other non-singer, Richard Harris) was a highlight of the evening, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZBH-ArhhyY.

Thursday, November 24, 2016

'The Tempest' by William Shakespeare

24 November 2016

On Tuesday we were at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon to see Greg Doran’s new production of ‘The Tempest’, starring Simon Russell Beale as Prospero. I had only seen ‘The Tempest’ once before (reviewed here in April 2012) and regular readers might remember that my low expectations of the play set me up for a very enjoyable experience. This time round my expectations were much higher and, perhaps inevitably, I wasn’t quite so taken with the play. Nevertheless this new production, by the Royal Shakespeare Company in collaboration with Intel and in association with the Imaginarium Studios, was a stunning spectacle. Two years in the making, the collaboration brings groundbreaking digital effects to the stage. Imaginarium Studios, established by motion-capture pioneer Andy Serkis, have created a digital avatar of Ariel, driven by live motion-capture from the body of the actor Mark Quartley, allowing him to appear simultaneously on stage and projected onto a series of moving curtains. Stephen Brimson Lewis’s amazing set turns the auditorium of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre into the innards of an enormous wrecked ship. Projection behind the set and on the surface of the stage creates beautiful dreamlike tableaux, particularly effective in the masque towards the end of the play that features three opera singers – Alison Arnopp, Samantha Hay and Jennifer Witton – singing original music by Paul Englishby. The digital technology is impressive but never overwhelms the play itself, thanks partly to a compelling performance by Simon Russell Beale as a Prospero with an uncanny resemblance to Obi Wan Kenobi. I was feeling my age, reflecting on having seen Simon Russell Beale play Hamlet – it’s only a matter of time before I will be watching him as King Lear! There were also outstanding physical performances by Mark Quartley as Ariel and Joe Dixon as Caliban. But it is the experience of feeling like part of a giant digital art installation that will live long in the memory. You can see videos about the digital development of ‘The Tempest’ at https://www.rsc.org.uk/the-tempest/video-creating-the-tempest and https://newsroom.intel.com/press-kits/intel-shakespeares-tempest/.

Friday, November 18, 2016

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

18 November 2016

I first discovered Shostakovich's ‘Symphony No 5’ in my teens, playing 3rd horn in a performance by Stockport Youth Orchestra in Stockport Town Hall, and have loved the piece ever since. I haven’t played the symphony for many years and it was fascinating to get to grips with it again over the past few weeks in preparation for Saturday’s Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert. Having recently read Julian Barnes’ biographical novel about Shostakovich, 'The Noise of Time' (reviewed here in March 2016), I appreciated the ambiguity of ‘A Soviet Artist's Response to Just Criticism’ properly for the first time. It’s a stunningly powerful symphony but its cynical sting in the tail reminds you that all was not what it seemed in Soviet Russia. I think our performance on Saturday achieved the necessary blend of strength and delicacy with some beautiful solos and a devastating finale. We started the concert with another work I first encountered in my teens – Malcolm Arnold’s second set of ‘English Dances’, which was one of the first pieces I played with the Manchester Youth Orchestra – playing those tunes immediately took me back to our tour of the Loire Valley in France in 1984. For the past 16 years I have spent most Wednesday evenings rehearsing with the Northampton Symphony Orchestra in the Edmund Rubbra Hall at Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Trust, without ever wondering who Edmund Rubbra was. In Saturday’s concert we played ‘A Tribute’ - a short, gentle piece by the Northampton-born Rubbra, written to mark the 70th birthday of Vaughan-Williams. Saturday’s concert also featured the ‘Violin Concerto’ by William Walton played by the amazing Joo Yeon Sir. It’s an incredibly difficult concerto, for orchestra and soloist, but it was a really enjoyable challenge and Joo’s incredibly precise, rhythmic performance helped to carry us through. I was amazed to learn this was the first time she had performed the work in public.

Thursday, November 10, 2016

‘Career of Evil’ by Robert Galbraith

10 November 2016

I’ve just finished reading ‘Career of Evil’ – the third Cormoran Strike detective novel by J K Rowling (writing as Robert Galbraith) – as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Robert Glenister. Fans of 'The Cuckoo's Calling' (reviewed here in May 2014) and ‘The Silkworm’ (reviewed here in August 2014) will enjoy this return to the world of Cormoran and Robin, now on the trail of a serial killer with a passion for dismemberment. As with the previous books, J K Rowling seems to be determined to root the story in a very realistic contemporary setting, throwing in an often unnecessary level of detail. This makes the occasional inaccuracy particularly jarring. At one point Strike and Robin have breakfast in the dining room of a Travelodge – which never have dining rooms: there really wasn’t any need to be so specific about the particular hotel chain. And I’m beginning to suspect that the recurring inaccurate references to televised football matches that it would have been impossible to watch (in all three novels) are actually a deliberate running joke! But I can forgive these niggles because Rowling has created some compelling characters and you really care what happens to them. I was also amused to see an example of my third rule of detective fiction in action, though I can’t tell you what that is without spoiling the plot – ask me after you’ve finished the book.

Friday, November 04, 2016

On Saturday we were at the George Street Community Centre in Fenny Stratford, Milton Keynes to see the local amateur theatre group The Branchette Players. They were performing ‘The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society’s Production of Macbeth’ - a comedy by William Shakespeare, David McGillivray and Walter Zerlin Jnr. This is one in a series of 10 play-within-plays by McGillivray and Zerlin featuring the Farndale Avenue Guild. This one might have been subtitled ‘The Scottish Play That Goes Wrong’. Playing an incompetent amateur theatre group allows any actual slips to go unnoticed but for the comedy to work the amateur actors do need to be able to deliver most of the original Shakespearean lines straight. The Branchette Players were clearly very capable with some great Shakespearean acting on show, amongst the farce, particularly from Shona Gilchrist as Macbeth. Sue Noon was wonderful as Mrs Reece who ends up holding the show together. And Wayne Oakes was a surprisingly sympathetic Lady Macbeth. But the funniest moments were the blank-faced confusion of Lynn Homer’s voiceless Banquo.

About Me

Since September 2005 Robin Simpson has been Chief Executive of Voluntary Arts, which provides a universal voice for approximately 63,000 voluntary arts groups, across the UK and Ireland, involving more than 10 million participants in creative cultural activities. A keen amateur French horn player, Robin is currently a member of the Northampton Symphony Orchestra. Robin is a perennial ballroom dancing student, a frequent theatre-goer, an enthusiastic reader of contemporary fiction, an insatiable consumer of classical and world music and a keen blogger at www.culturalplayingfield.org and www.culturaldessert.blogspot.com